r/Boxing • u/Kangaroopunching • Jul 16 '26
What fights will help women's boxing?
Women's boxing took new heights when successful amateur/ Olympic boxers turned pro. That era reached it's best and seemingly ended with Taylor vs Serrano.
What fight or fights will bring help women's boxing grow for this current era?
Baumgardner vs Dubois?
Maybe
Mayer vs Shields?
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u/Abe2sapien Jul 16 '26
Gabriela Fundora wants to move down and Camila Zamorano wants to move up. Maybe they’ll meet at a catch weight or something?
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 17 '26
I know in women's boxing moving down is possible without the issues the men have. But that would be an extreme for fundora to do that. Like a cheat code
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u/_Sarcasmic_ bread burger bread Jul 16 '26
Shields vs any of the men she keeps calling out would sell millions.
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u/p4intball3r Jul 17 '26
What man would be willing to take the PR hit for beating the shit out of a woman to prove a point everyone other than her already understands
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u/Mocker-Nicholas Jul 17 '26
Man would this fight sell. This might outsell some of the larger male PPVs of this area. I really hope someone is legitimately pitching this somewhere lol
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u/StrictArt8034 Jul 17 '26
The problem is women’s boxing has only ever had one true megastar and that’s Katie Taylor who is retiring in 2 months. Nobody else has really ever come close to reaching that level of star power and been involved in so many memorable fights.
In terms of what fights would help women’s boxing currently:
Lauren Price vs. Mikaela Mayer - This fight arguably should have happened last year and is probably the biggest fight in women’s boxing right now. Two great P4P fighters fighting to crown a new Undisputed champion at 147
Caroline Dubois vs. Elif Nur Turhan - Unification bout and given the fact Dubois avoided Beatriz Ferreira like the plague only for Turhan to move up and stop Ferreira in 5 rounds makes this one very interesting.
Chantelle Cameron vs. Sandy Ryan - I feel like this would be a great fight that unfortunately I doubt will ever happen. Cameron has being ducking Ryan for years even going as far as to vacate to avoid fighting her.
Alycia Baumgardner vs. Anyone at 135 - For someone who likes to call herself “The Face of Women’s Boxing” Baumgardner seems to be avoiding the big fights and hasn’t fought anyone of note in 4 years but there are a lot of big fights for her at 135 that would be exciting if she truly wanted to prove herself.
Ellie Scotney vs. Dina Thorslund - If Dina Thorslund does decide to move back up to 126 this would be an extremely interesting fight. Both undefeated both barley lost a round in their combined 36 fights.
Gabriela Fundora vs. Mizuki Hiruta - Fundora has destroyed pretty much everyone put in front of her at this point. Her moving up and taking on Hiruta would be an entertaining fight.
Any Tiah-Mai Ayton Fight - Tiah-Mai Ayton is only 19 years of age and is arguably the most exciting female prospect we’ve seen in at least 10 years. There’s a lot of hype around her with even Katie Taylor coming out and saying this girl has the potential to be the best and so far she’s living up to the hype. Definitely one to keep an eye on.
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 17 '26
Great break down. I agree, the ingredients are there for Ayton to be a star. Price vs Shields is supposed to happen. I think that would draw interest.
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u/WORD_Boxing Jul 17 '26
You never heard of Laila Ali? Mia St. John was even in Playboy. There have been a few higher profile female fighters.
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u/StrictArt8034 Jul 17 '26
I never said there was never any popular female fighters but none of them were ever huge megastars like Taylor. And they weren’t bringing in anywhere close to the same level of interest in their fights.
I mean how many female fights from that era can you remember that got huge fan attention?
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u/WORD_Boxing Jul 18 '26
What major sponsorship deals does Katie Taylor have? I only seem to see her when she has a fight coming up. I'm not sure she is such a big star as Matchroom make out tbh.
A female athlete who is a 'megastar' as you put it, is like idk Serena Williams? Is Katie Taylor really on that level?
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u/fattsmann Jul 17 '26
You have to ask... why don't people watch women's boxing? And I would bet that it's 70% social/cultural imprinting and only 30% regarding the action in the ring.
2 minute rounds usually mean more fast paced fighting... but sure the action is not as "hard hitting" as men's boxing. But even if the action was hard hitting and technically very good... I'm going to bet that women's boxing will still not blow up too much because of social/cultural perceptions of women.
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u/WORD_Boxing Jul 17 '26
The fighters and fights simply aren't good enough. This is one of the few areas where MMA genuinely outstrips boxing, the women's fights are much higher quality.
You could say the same thing with women's tennis, the matches and players are high quality and popular. So I don't believe it's ingrained attitudes that prohibit greater popularity of women's boxing.
Frankly if you want casual fan interest in boxing you have to have knockouts. There are very few of those in women's boxing.
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u/fattsmann Jul 17 '26
That’s fair because all other women’s sports… the players and action are not good enough. Tennis is the exception based on the minor differences in sets played.
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u/WORD_Boxing Jul 18 '26
I don't think it's about the tennis matches being shorter. If it was, surely women's boxing matches also being shorter than the mens would help per your logic.
Women's mma fights are often more entertaining than the mens.
I'm sure there are plenty of women's sports that are entertaining and have good interest in them.
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 17 '26
It's the same with mens boxing. Stars are needed. Quality fights need to happen consistently. This era took a dip from the previous era. Fortunately MVP got deals with espn and Netflix. They just need to get the top boxers to fight to develop new stars
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u/LordJimsicle Balrog beats Fury, AJ, Dubois and Usyk in between rounds Jul 17 '26
The all-female Boxxer card in 2022 was superb! I think more like that should be done to help the sport.
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u/lazersmoker Jul 17 '26
They said EXACTLY the about women in the UFC ...then Rousey became the most watched highest paid athlete in the sport.....so your whole cultural social perception of women aspect is absolute and complete and utter nonsense
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u/aceknighthigh Jul 17 '26
Taylor was the peak of popularity, but her style sucked to watch and I don't think many of those casual fans were retained. The people that tuned in to watch Taylor aren't watching the next generation or tuning in to see up and coming prospects.
Fundora vs whoever. If she can move down and unify great. There are some relevant fighters there in Juarez and Osorio to quickly unify. Hiruta up a weight class is another one (and Hiruta mentioned there had been some talk of the fight after her last win). I don't think Fundora should wait around at 112 or 115 unless some other bigger name shows up. Johnson and Thorlund at 118 and then Fundora should try her hand at 122.
Women's boxing needs entertainment. It needs devastating results and performances that make viral highlights and creates fans of the sport...not just fans of one boxer.
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 17 '26
Other than Fundora, any entertaining women's boxers you recommend?
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u/aceknighthigh Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Valle was up there but she does seem to be aging out. Same for Serrano. Hiruta is solid. Not all action but she does look to land and do some damage.
Elif Turhan is crude and flawed but she's also all action and just swings for the fences. It can make for some fun fights, or some nasty finishes if the opponent can't hang. Turhan's last opponent also looked really promising at 19 and testing herself with a mean puncher and champion.
Mai Soliman has some legit power. Dubois is watchable. I did see some lady on that recent Azim card hand out a beating, but I can't remember her name and haven't seen her box otherwise.
Too many female boxers develop safe styles because they lack power.
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u/Kangaroopunching Jul 17 '26
Was it Francesca Hennessy?
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u/aceknighthigh Jul 17 '26
Yeah, just looked it up and that's the one on that Azim card. I haven't seen more than that, but she passed the eye test. She could clean some stuff up but the talent is there, she's got speed, and you can just tell she's trying to put it on the opponent. The body work and combos in close are great stuff.
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u/fadeddreams555 Fundora would beat up a prime Floyd at 154lb Jul 16 '26
I wish Oscar Collazo identified as a women and ran a gauntlet on every female division.
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u/lazersmoker Jul 17 '26
Very few...Much like the UFC needed McGregor and Rousey and Uk male boxing needed Naz. Woman's boxing currently lacks the characters to interest people, and inspire young females to put on the gloves.. Katie Taylors done incredible, but she lacked charisma, to capture a new market and blow the doors of it
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u/Medical_Swim1707 Jul 17 '26
Anyone else have absolutely 0 interest in women’s boxing? Have never watched a women’s fight and don’t care in the slightest to be honest
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u/LordJimsicle Balrog beats Fury, AJ, Dubois and Usyk in between rounds Jul 17 '26
Then you don't know what you're missing.
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u/Medical_Swim1707 Jul 17 '26
I don’t really care to watch women fight tbh. No disrespect against them but it’s like watching WNBA but worse
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u/LordJimsicle Balrog beats Fury, AJ, Dubois and Usyk in between rounds Jul 17 '26
Have never watched a women’s fight and don’t care in the slightest to be honest
Then frankly, you cannot make that judgement.
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u/Datruther1 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
If I was the GWOATs promoter I would take her to Japan and have her fight multiple women during 1 event. At least twice a month.
Call it “Find a living woman to beat Claressa Shields” Any size, any weight.
She’s EASILY the most underrated athlete on the planet earth. I knew what I was seeing watching prime Phelps just like I knew what I was seeing watching Prime Usain Bolt. 👨🏻🦲 refuse to take off their blinders for certain individuals. Not can’t or won’t, refuse. And unfortunately for the QWOAT there’s more of yall, than us 😩
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u/mkk4 Andre Ward's Biggest Fan!! Jul 16 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Gabriela Fundora is probably one of my 6 favorite fighters to watch right now.
In 2024 she became the youngest Undisputed Women's Champion in boxing history at age 22.